Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, April 26, 2000

2000-04-26 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- The political storm over Elian Gonzalez grew fiercer yesterday as the Republican leadership of the Senate announced hearings on the Justice Department's decision to use armed agents to seize the 6-year-old, and as Vice President Al Gore distanced himself again from the government's handling of the case.

Senate majority leader Trent Lott, R- Miss., saying he was dissatisfied with Attorney General Janet Reno's defense of the raid during meetings yesterday on Capitol Hill, called for hearings next week to explore why Reno ordered the use of agents armed with machine guns to take the boy last weekend from his relatives in Miami.

In his first public comments about the raid, Gore, the presumptive Democratic nominee, told National Public Radio that he "would have handled it differently." Gore, who has been at odds with President Clinton and Reno over the case, repeated that a family court should have decided the boy's future.

Meanwhile, Elian, his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, his stepmother and his infant half-brother were moved yesterday from an Air Force base near Washington where they had lived since last weekend to the Wye River conference center in Maryland in what was described as an effort to give them greater privacy.

At a White House conference on hate crimes, President Clinton asked that the family be given "space" to "heal its wounds and strengthen its bonds."

'LONG OVERDUE'

He praised Reno and the immigration agents involved in the raid and led the crowd in a rousing event. "After five months, it was long overdue," said Clinton, who has long had a frosty relationship with his attorney general.

Other efforts were announced yesterday to make Elian and his family more comfortable while they wait for court rulings in the case.

The State Department agreed yesterday to allow four Cuban schoolmates of Elian's, along with one parent from each family, to travel to the United States and visit the 6-year-old boy. James Rubin, the State Department spokesman, said the visas probably would be granted quickly and the children were expected to stay a couple of weeks.

The Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has barred Elian from leaving the country pending appeals by his Miami relatives, who are seeking asylum for the boy, and yesterday the appeals court expanded its order to forbid the child from being taken to any location protected by diplomatic immunity. The expanded order would effectively bar Elian from visiting the homes or offices of diplomats assigned to the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, presumably because U.S. laws would not apply there.

The expanded order came in response to a request from Lazaro Gonzalez, Elian's great-uncle, who also asked that the court appoint an independent guardian for the boy while the court case plays out. The 11th Circuit order gave the government until 4 p.m. today to respond.

In the closed meeting yesterday at the Capitol, more than a dozen Democratic and Republican senators questioned Doris Meissner, the commissioner for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Eric Holder, deputy attorney general, and Reno about their decision to send armed agents into the house in the early morning hours.

Most Democrats in the meeting said they were satisfied that Reno was justified in sending in the agents to reunite father and son. Republicans, though, described her answers as vague and inadequate.

'OVER-REACHING OF POWER'

"The issue is whether we as a society, as a government, as a country, should authorize the use of force to go into a family home to settle an issue about custody," said Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla. "It is an over-reaching of the power of government."

Lott said that what concerned him most was why Reno ordered the raid when negotiators in Miami, led by a team of prominent civic leaders, felt they were making progress in finding a solution to transfer Elian to his father.

And despite results from opinion surveys showing public support for the raid, Lott said he believes most Americans think Reno used excessive force.

In Miami, meanwhile, thousands of workers stayed home and students skipped school as Cuban Americans observed a general strike that shut down the Little Havana neighborhood of the city, which had been home to Elian until he was taken by federal agents Saturday.

Officials said about 10 percent of Miami-Dade County's workers took the day off. More than 35 percent of the county's 2.2 million residents are of Cuban descent.